Kitchen appliances such as food processors or stand mixers are well known in the prior art and are used in food preparation in general. In particular in professional food preparation environments ease of use and ease of workflow when using such kitchen appliances is required. In the case of kitchen appliances or food processors that comprise a removable bowl, ease of fixation of the bowl to a base station of the kitchen appliance is beneficial if the fixation itself does not require additional manual movement.
Apart from the above, easy and secure fixation of tools used in such kitchen appliances is also paramount. From a hygienic point of view it is important that kitchen appliances and the parts thereof, such as bowls and tools, can be easily cleaned.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,242 A discloses a stand mixer having a locking connection between the mixing bowl and the bowl support or base station. The stand mixer comprises a lower housing with a support that is rotatably mounted thereto and a mixing bowl that is removably connected to the support. Between the mixing bowl and the support is a self-locking connection. The self-locking connection comprises the support having an aperture and the mixing bowl having a member fixedly connected to the mixing bowl. The member fixedly connected to the mixing bowl is adapted to be inserted into the aperture of the support. The member has an engagement surface formed therein in the form of an angled slot. The support has a pin that extends across the aperture, which can engage the angled slot. The mixing bowl is placed over the pin such that pin enters the angled slot. Rotation of the support drives the pin upon the engagement surface of the member. This rotates the member in unison with the support and cams down the mixing bowl against the support to lock the mixing bowl to the support.
A drawback of the kitchen appliance of U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,242 A is that the bowl must be carefully placed onto the support, so that the pin is allowed to engage the angled slot or engagement surface of the member. This requires additional manual operations trying to find the correct position of the bowl on the base station. This is particularly true as the pin will have an arbitrary position depending on where the motor of the kitchen appliance stopped.
Yet another drawback of the kitchen appliance know from U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,242 A is the fact that coupling between the bowl and the support is effected by means of a pin that engages the slot provided in the wall of the member. The pin has only a very limited contact area in common with the slot and hence only a very small contact area that can transfer the movement and thus power from the motor to the bowl. Furthermore, the number of parts that make up the locking connection of the known kitchen appliance is relatively large and the connection is complex.
Another kitchen appliance that is known from the prior art is a kitchen appliance that comprises a base station having a support surface. The base station encloses drive means that drivingly engage a drive shaft that extends from the support surface. The drive shaft of the generally known kitchen appliance is relatively long, i.e. the drive shaft has substantially larger dimensions in its longitudinal direction than its cross-sectional dimensions. The known kitchen appliance further comprises a removable bowl that is supported by the support surface and can be attached to the base station, for example by locking means provided on the bowl and base station that engage by rotating the bowl.
The bowl of the known kitchen appliance comprises a through opening in its bottom part through which the relatively long drive shaft protrudes, more in particular the through opening is shaped as a hollow tubular element open at its free end which extends into the interior of the bowl and through which in turn the drive shaft extends. The tubular element extends along a significant part of the height of the bowl. A tool that is to be used with the known kitchen appliance is placed over the tubular element and can be drivingly engages the drive shaft, which in turn extends beyond the free end of the tubular element.
A drawback of the known kitchen appliance is related to the design of the bowl and in particular to the tubular element that forms a through opening through which the drive shaft extends. The through opening for the drive shaft is in fact an opening in the bottom of the bowl, i.e. the bowl has an opening in its bottom part. Furthermore, as the tubular element extends only along a part of the height of the bowl, the bowl cannot be completely filled with foodstuffs. Also, the tubular element is difficult to clean as it is designed as a relatively narrow tube so as to closely enclose the drive shaft protruding through it.